Bill Belichick and UNC Football's Hulu Documentary Series Canceled

NEED TO KNOW

• A planned docuseries about UNC football has been nixed, PEOPLE can confirm
• The series, set to stream on Hulu this fall, was first announced by coach Bill Belichick in August
• The docuseries is the second such production to be canceled since the former NFL coach arrived in Chapel Hill

The Hulu docuseries set to chronicle Bill Belichick’s first year as a college football coach at the University of North Carolina is no longer in the works, PEOPLE can confirm.

Inside Carolina was first to report that the project is not moving forward, on Tuesday, Oct. 7, according to a source close to the team.

Belichick first made the announcement about the docuseries in August in a speech to his team.

"This is about the UNC football program,” Belichick, 73, told his players — days before the Tar Heels kicked off their season against TCU on Sept. 1 — in a clip posted to Carolina Football’s X account. “There's obviously a lot of interest in it and it'll stream on Hulu later this fall.”

He continued at the time, "It's going to feature the players working hard, which you guys do. It's about the players improving and getting better through their hard work, which you do. And a program starting from where it started from several months ago to wherever it's gonna go during the course of the season, which, of course, will be determined on the field. It'll show our commitment to winning, it'll show our commitment to the team, and that's our priority."

Hulu never officially confirmed the series, and a representative for EverWonder Studio, the company that was set to produce the project, did not return PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The docuseries’ demise comes about eight months after Belichick and the team were linked to another high-profile behind-the-scenes show: Hard Knocks.

According to The Athletic, the ACC school and the former NFL coach were to be the subjects of the HBO franchise, but the production was called off at the last minute.

Belichick’s girlfriend Jordon Hudson, 24, “played an instrumental role in stopping the production,” because she requested “to be heavily involved in the project,” the outlet reported, based on numerous anonymous sources who were not authorized to speak publicly. 

News of the nixed project comes amid a turbulent early season for Belichick and UNC.

At 2-3 — including three losses to power conference schools TCU, UCF and Clemson in which the Tar Heels lost by 25 points or more in each contest — the team is searching for answers.

After UNC's 38-10 loss to the Tigers on Saturday, the former New England Patriots coach — whose alleged illegal hiring at UNC is the subject of a new lawsuit — remained optimistic.

"We're going to work through it and work our way out of it,” Belichick told reporters during his postgame press conference. “Keep working every week to prepare for the next team and that's what we're going to do."

One day later, after former North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye led Belichick’s former franchise to a shocking win over the undefeated Buffalo Bills, a report claimed that sources within North Carolina said Belichick banned Tar Heels social media from celebrating Maye's big win.

Read the original article on People